Together we stand as a community unified against the messages of hate Trump spreads. We empower ourselves to take control of our democracy and hit the polls. We stand together as Americans and Montanans. Missoula Rises, along with a coalition of organizations, will host a “Love Trumps Hate” rally and March to the Polls on Thursday, October 18, 2018 from 2:30 to 6pm at Playfair Park in Missoula.

Sign making party/work party/press can interview the hardworking, on the ground members of Missoula Rises.

Thursday, October 18, 2018 at Playfair Park Missoula, MT

2:30 - 4:00 pm We Create Community Connection

The Native community will open the event. Peaceful Heart Yoga will be leading yoga for children and adults, specifically focusing on how to use our passion, rage and anger for positive and constructive work.

Community Mural. We want to know what your vision of Missoula Community looks like. Come show us what your heart says about our community. Show us what your dream for a Missoula Community looks like. Show us through art!

Community Comfort Food Potluck. Yes, we will have food trucks, but we also all bring our comfort food that speaks to our homes and cultures to share with each other.

VOTING!!! We will have escorts to walk people over to the polls to VOTE! And yes.... we are working on getting golf carts draped in American flags to shuttle people over there. Education, education, education.

There will be tables with information and people to talk to about the various ballot initiatives. You can also find out there how to canvass, door knock and help register voters.

We march from Playfair Park down South Avenue and wrap around the fairgrounds to Russell Street. We surround the sidewalks around the Missoula County Fairgrounds. We surround the polls. We protest, AND we get out the vote. We do both.

A full event description is available online at : https://www.facebook.com/events/248193679377589/

For General Media and logistics questions prior to the 18th contact: Lisa Davey, Press Coordinator for Missoula Rises 406-240-4105 or ladavey25@gmail.com

We are nearing 100 days until the election. If we want to win in November, we need to be talking to Montanans about why it's important to vote for Jon Tester, Kathleen Williams, and other local Democrats, and how these candidates share our Montana values.

Will you join us this weekend for a Weekend of Action?

Join us in Billings, Bozeman, Butte , Glendive, Great Falls, Hamilton, Havre, Helena, Kalispell, Livingston, Miles City, and Missoula. You can work on door knocking, phonebanking, and/or voter registration. There are morning, noon, afternoon, and evening shifts available.Sign up links below! Don't miss out on the fun!

Nothing is going to change in Washington unless we flip the House and the Senate.

Our part of that, here in Montana, is to re-elect Jon Tester and elect Kathleen Williams. So here it is: A Simple Guide to Making A Difference, and how to have fun doing it.

Because we can do it. Here’s how:

We’re going to act together. It won’t be hard. In fact, you’ll have fun doing it. And you will sleep better knowing you are doing your part.

Sign up as a volunteer for the campaigns. That gets you on the email lists, so you’ll know about any upcoming events. You’ll run into old friends and make new friends, go to candidate and volunteer events, get free pizza, and have fun. Click the links below to get to the volunteer signup pages.

If you have Facebook you can Like the candidate pages. This is another way to make sure you see all the messages from the campaigns and don’t miss any fun events. Click the links below to get to the Facebook pages.

Sign up for events. Clicks, Likes, and witty Tweets don’t win elections. Real people doing real things win elections. You’ll start getting notified of events and training after you sign up online and with Facebook. Pick one and get started. It’s easy and fun.

If you are able, sign up for a shift knocking doors. It’s fun, it’s not hard at all, you meet great people, and you get to have real conversations with your neighbors. If a farmer like Jon Tester can do it, you can too.

If door knocking isn’t for you, you can phone bank. It’s easy and fun too. You will be in a room with other volunteers, get some training and resources, use campaign phones, and work from a list of voters. You’ll get some sample wording. You will have great conversations with people all across Montana. You’ll probably even score some snacks.

Spread the word. Talk to your friends and family. Let them know you support Tester and Williams, and why. Help them understand why voting for Tester and Williams is so important. Find some people who didn’t vote in the 2016 election and help them register. Ask people if they are registered to vote at their current address. Ask your kids, grandkids, neighbors, people in your classes, ask everyone. If each of us gets just two new people to vote in 2018, we can turn this thing around. Reach out to friends and family, especially anyone under 30. That’s the group that has the lowest voter turnout, and also has the most to lose.

BUCKLE UP!​​Wednesday we learned that Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy is retiring. Donald Trump may get to appoint another justice, replacing a moderate with someone from the far right. That will change the Court for a lifetime.

​BUT -- We can stop it.

It will be hard fought, it will be difficult, it will be suspenseful, but we, you and I and every justice-seeking person in the country, we can stop it. There aren't that many US political problems that happen in the short term, that are very specific, that have a very clear outcome, that have far reaching impact, that we can influence. This is one.

We can do something. We can block a Trump nominee.

Call Senator Tester. Call every office. Call every week. Tell him to vote NO on any extremist, anti-choice nominee.

Persuade Senator Collins, Murkowski, or Flake to either vote no, or to not vote.

Re-elect Senator Tester.

Elect Kathleen Williams to the House.

How will we block the nominee? Call Senator Tester. Call every office. Call every week. Write postcards. Tell him to vote NO on any extremist, anti-choice nominee.

Second, confirmation takes a simple majority of votes (lately, 50 plus the VP’s vote due to a tie). But the Senate has changed. Alabama now has one Democratic Senator. Democrats have 49 votes and the Republicans have 51. Sen. John McCain is home in Arizona for health reasons, and won’t be voting, so the Republicans really only have 50 votes. By simple arithmetic, all we need to block a nomination is one Republican vote (or lack of vote).

So how do we do that? Easy. Do you have friends and family in Alaska, Maine, Arizona? Reach out the them personally and ask them to make calls to their Senators. Ask those Senators to reject an anti-choice extremist nominee. Ask those Senators not to be the vote that overturns Roe v. Wade. You can also reach out directly to voters in Alaska, Maine, and Arizona. Join Postcards for America, or sign up for virtual phone banks.

We can persuade Collins and Murkowski because neither of them wants to be the deciding vote that end up killing abortion rights.

Trump pledged to nominate only judges who promise to overturn Roe v Wade. This is important because many states left their old anti-abortion laws on the books. Others have trigger laws that would go into effect automatically if Roe is overturned. In all, 33 of 50 states are poised to immediately cut off access to abortion.

Collins & Murkowski, while voting to put various restrictions on access to abortion, have both recently voted no on 20 week bans. We can take that to mean that neither wants to completely cut off access to abortion. They might not want to be the deciding vote that overturns Roe. They can do that voting no.

We can persuade Jeff Flake because he may be ready to say NO to Trump. Flake has been voicing more and more disagreement with Trump. Jeff Flake is on the Senate Judiciary Committee, and he could decline to pass a nominee out to the full Senate for a vote. He could possibly still be persuaded to reject an extremist nominee.

We can do this.

It’s a four month sprint, and we need an immediate rush for the next 30 days. Every single Democrat has to pledge to vote no on a nominee that would vote to overturn Roe. We need at least one, and preferably more, Republicans to also vote no. Finally, we need to take control of the House and Senate in January, and we can do that by making sure Senator Tester is re-elected and Kathleen Williams beats Gianforte in November.

This is a big deal.

The Democrats have a decision to make. So do you. Don’t be a doormat.

Call Senator Tester. Call every office. Call every week. Tell him to vote NO on any extremist, anti-choice nominee.

Persuade Senator Collins, Murkowski, or Flake to either vote no, or to not vote.

Thing 1:The Trump administration is forcibly taking migrant children from their parents and placing them in separate detention centers to “deter” illegal immigration.​

The Trump administration has begun forcibly taking children from their parents. Rather than only taking truly unaccompanied children, or children whose parents are charged with violent crimes, HHS has classified all unauthorized border crossers as criminals and separates the children from their families.

These children may end up in the hands of human traffickers or be used as laborers by people posing as relatives. We know this has happened. Two years ago, a Senate homeland security subcommittee released a report detailing how HHS officials placed eight children with human traffickers who forced the minors to work on an egg farm in Marion, Ohio. The report found that department officials had failed to establish procedures to protect the unaccompanied minors, such as conducting sufficient background checks on potential sponsors and following up with sponsors. We have evidence that children have been sold into sex trafficking.

Homeland Security and HHS signed a memorandum of understanding in 2016 and agreed to establish joint procedures within one year for dealing with unaccompanied migrant children. More than a year after the new guidelines were due, the two agencies have not completed them. Article here.

Trump is using these children as bargaining chips. He said so himself when he tweeted “Put pressure on the Democrats to end the horrible law that separates children from there [sic] parents once they cross the Border into the U.S. Catch and Release, Lottery and Chain must also go with it and we MUST continue building the WALL! DEMOCRATS ARE PROTECTING MS-13 THUGS.” Trump wants to force the Democrats to vote for a new immigration bill that gives him what he wants: tougher law enforcement on the border, a higher rate of deportation, and funding for his wall.

Racism. Sometimes the simplest answer is the correct answer. Trump and his administration have told us, in word and deed, that they are racists and see people of color as criminals, as gang members, as animals. We should believe them when they say that.

BUT OBAMA!​

By now you have probably heard someone say “Obama started it” or “Obama did it too.”

NO. Not true. This is a change from Obama policy. Previously, most parents had been allowed to remain with their children in family shelters while awaiting asylum cases or deportation proceedings. The Office of Refugee Resettlement generally placed only children who crossed the border without a parent in government-run detention centers. If a parent and a child came together, they would be processed together unless border officers could not be certain that they were actually the parents of the children accompanying them or if the adults were prosecuted for a crime.

This is a complete change of rules and drastic escalation by the Trump administration. People of conscience around the world are noting that this is what the Nazis did. It is a betrayal of everything the United States stands for.

CALL TO ACTION!

Being outraged and upset is not enough. Posting on Facebook is not enough. If we can't stop this in the United States, we can't stop it anywhere.​

Put pressure on our members of Congress. All three of them. Call. Email. Fax. Show up at their offices and their events. Congress is a co-equal branch of government and is supposed to act as a check and balance on the Executive. It’s time for them to act like it and do their jobs. Stay updated with Daily Actions and events telling our Members of Congress to:

Force HHS to end the 100% prosecution policy, stop separating families, and do not put children in military concentration camps. All you have to say is “I am outraged by how our government is treating children at the border. What is my Senator/Rep doing about this?”

You can contact ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) directly. Write to them here or call them at 1-866-DHS-2-ICE.

Call/fax E. Scott Lloyd, the Director of The Office of Refugee Resettlement in DHHS. He is responsible for the missing children. Phone: 202-401-9246Fax: 202-401-0981.

Action on the ground.

There is an effort to organize #WhereAreTheChildren marches for June 14. Check here for more information.

We need more volunteers helping immigrant serving/organizing organizations with things like showing up at city council meetings to voice support for immigrants, ask your city government to invest in legal services money for people going through deportation, preparing your neighbors to defeat any anti-sanctuary efforts, and accompanying undocumented people to ICE check ins.

If you are a person of faith or a member of a faith community, ask what your congregation is doing to stop family separation.

Midterm Elections. Demand every candidate support legislation to fix this harm. Republicans control both the House and Senate. Republicans refuse to take any action to hold Trump accountable for anything, including this horrific policy. Democrats are afraid to make immigration a campaign priority. Enough is enough. Democrats have to stand up and demand that the United States do the right thing. ​

What do you call it when one party controls the House, the Senate, and the White House? You SHOULD be able to call it legislative carte blanche - the ability to do whatever that party wants to do. Instead, we’re calling it the #GOPShutdown.

First, here’s a simple way to explain the shutdown:​

​Pretend the Senate is a restaurant and Mitch McConnell (Senate Majority Leader) is the waiter.

Chuck Schumer (Senate Minority Leader) and friends sit down and order scrambled eggs.

McConnell says "No. Everyone gets poached eggs and those brown people over there have to eat poison, or no one gets breakfast."

There is no reason for the government to be shut down. We should have a budget bill that takes us through the fiscal year. We don’t. We’ve had a series of Continuing Resolutions (CRs) for the last 9 years. The one that failed Friday night was only a 4 week extension. Now they are trying to put together something for as little as 3-4 days. This is like trying to handle your household finances via payday loans.

Backstory: How did we get here?

CHIP funding expired in September. Four months ago. There was a bipartisan bill to continue CHIP funding but the Republicans held it back while they took another shot at repealing Obamacare (that failed), then rammed the #GOPTaxScam through before the end of the year. The Republican talking point that the Democrats are not funding CHIP is not true.

Trump ended DACA in September. An average of 122 Dreamers lose their DACA protections every day. The Republican talking point that DACA is not in imminent danger is false.

Democrats agreed to more time for negotiation in September, again on December 9, and again on December 22. There was a bipartisan agreement to avert this shutdown, and Trump said he would sign whatever Congress gave him. Then Trump and some of his allies in Congress blew that up on Jan 11 (remember the racist s-hole comment?).

Last Friday the House passed a very narrow spending bill that included six years of funding for CHIP but did not include DACA legislation. The Senate took up the same bill and could not even get all of the Republicans to vote for it. Several Democrats did, and several Republicans did not. Time ran out and now large parts of the federal government are shut down.

There is a bipartisan bill that would get up to 70 votes in the Senate. Mitch McConnell will not bring this bill up for a vote. There have been motions to allow the military to be paid during the shutdown, and McConnell will not allow a vote.

Republicans control all three branches of government. The shutdown belongs to the Republican party. Republicans must make a choice: Honor the bipartisan agreement between Republicans and Democrats to end the shutdown or stand with Trump and the most racist voices in our country and keep the government shut down.

1. Democrats are shutting the government down to give amnesty to illegal immigrants.

FALSE.

Republicans control the White House, the Senate, and the House but they have not put forward legislation to fund the government that can pass both chambers of Congress. It is their obligation to keep the government running.

DACAis not unchecked illegal immigration. DACA recipients are lawfully present -- they are children who have lived in America for years, in many cases their entire lives. They were here lawfully under a government program that grants them lawfully present status until Donald Trump unilaterally ended it.

2. Democrats are hurting our military.

FALSE.

Republicans want to throw even more money at the Pentagon -- so much more money, that they’d need a new agreement in Congress to do it (because of the sequester caps that Republicans themselves imposed some years ago). Our existing military is not underfunded. It is not underprepared. Republicans want the CR to allow even more bloated spending to flow to the Pentagon and they’re not getting their way -- but that is a very different story from “Democrats are hurting the military.”

Military personnel have always received back pay for any lost salary during a government shutdown.

Multiple Senate Democrats have attempted to advance language specifying that service members will get paid during any shutdown, but Mitch McConnell has objected and kept these measures from getting a vote.

3. Democrats are holding up CHIP.​

FALSE.

CHIP funding expired at the end of September. Republicans have used CHIP as a political bargaining tool since then. Even though there is bipartisan support for extending CHIP for ten years, Republicans put a shorter six year reauthorization -- paired with repeal of certain Affordable Care Act provisions -- into the proposed CR to try to pit CHIP and Dream against each other, dividing Democrats. If anyone is holding up CHIP funding, it’s the Republicans that control Congress and the White House that could have extended funding months ago.

4. DACA is not an imminent issue. We have until March.

FALSE.

An average of 122 Dreamers lose their protection from deportation everyday. Over 16,000 Dreamers have lost protection since Trump unilaterally ended DACA in September. We need to protect Dreamers now. Plus, this Republican Congress has a habit of missing deadlines and not honoring promises to deal with issues later (ask Senators Flake and Collins!) so Congress must do this now.

5. Democrats are closing the national parks and hurting federal employees.”

FALSE.

The Republicans shut down the government and refuse to allow a vote on a bipartisan blll that can pass. Yes, some national parks will close for as long as Republicans fail to re-open the government, but some are still open and unstaffed (which is arguably worse!).

Federal employees have always received back pay for any lost salary during a government shutdown. If they do not receive back pay this time, it is because the Republicans won’t vote for it.

Finally, Republicans have demonized federal employees for years -- consistently proposing pay freezes, pay cuts, and the drastic cuts to the workforce. Any newfound concern they have for our federal workforce is a disingenuous fabrication.

WHAT CAN YOU DO?

JOIN a state or local action group and be notified of all in-person activities.

The state of Montana has a $227 million dollar budget hole -- largely caused by Republican legislators' refusal to appropriately tax the wealthy, corporations, and mineral extractors. The decline in state revenue threatens Montana’s ability to adequately invest in the public institutions and services that educate our children, keep our communities safe, and provide health care and other services to our most vulnerable neighbors.

Governor Bullock has proposed to address the $227 million revenue shortfall through an equal combination of cuts, revenue increases, and transfers and other legislation based on realistic revenue projections. This means automatic cuts to state government budgets, and a special session of the Legislature to attempt to address the shortfall. The Governor has called the Legislature back into a special session beginning at noon on Tuesday, November 14, 2017. Hearings begin on Monday, November 13, 2017.

The threat of $227 million of cuts is real and would have devastating and long-term impact on families and communities.

The Governor's proposal is far from perfect, but it will help to mitigate some of the cuts that would have been taken.

That said, it is not enough. The resulting $76 million in cuts will impact some of our most vulnerable families, and the legislature should consider going even further to put a stop to these cuts.

We need to call our legislators and tell them:

To SUPPORT this package of bills that will mitigate budget cuts.

To OPPOSE extending the contract of the privately run, for-profit prison in Shelby.

AND -- We expect meaningful dialogue on revenue that will put Montana on a more sustainable path going forward.

The switchboard is open on Monday with the start of the special session. You can call 406-444-4800 to leave a message for your legislator. You can also find your legislator's email address via http://leg.mt.gov/css/Sessions/65th/roster.asp?HouseID=0&SessionID=111

​It’s time Montana leaders fulfill their responsibilities to the people they represent and balance our budget in a way that makes sense for Montana taxpayers, workers, and families.

Watch a short video explaining the shortfall: ​ https://www.facebook.com/MontanaBudget/videos/1995316663828912/

The Senate health care bills are flying fast. It's very hard to keep track. Whatever we think the bills are now, they will change, and the Senate GOP is not going to make the text of what gets voted on public ahead of time. McConnell has been very clear about that.

The quickest, easiest way to explain the basics of what is being proposed is to grab an expert explanation. Please welcome Topher Spiro, ​Senior Fellow, Economic Policy and Vice President, Health Policy, Center for American Progress. He tweets as @TopherSpiro.

Remember, whatever the GOP votes on will contain bits and pieces from various drafts. It's almost guaranteed to be a worst case scenario.

After you read this, CALL YOUR SENATORS! 202-224-3121

Tell them:

No Obamacare Repeal.

No cuts or caps Medicaid or CHIP.

Nothing that harms people with pre-existing conditions.

Nothing that results in tens millions (32 million in the latest bill) losing their health insurance.

But first, read Topher. Take a good look at the chars. Then CALL.

1: ALERT: Trump admin is using fake #'s to flip moderates--
saying people can be moved from Medicaid to Cruz plans without harm. Via @WSJ: pic.twitter.com/XkXaK9G51S